# GOOOOOOOOOOOGLE PLUUUUUSSSSS!



## Lady Grimdour (Sep 21, 2011)

Join iitttt

Okay, if you've been living under a rock, it's Google's answer to Facebook and it is AMAZING. Mostly because you can split your friends into work friends, internet friends, your boss, your parents so if you don't want one group to read your status, there. There's also video conferencing, and it's connected to gmail and of course, the search engine.

Plus it's SHINY AND NEW. Join and we'll add each other!


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## Murkrow (Sep 21, 2011)

They opened up to everyone yesterday didn't they? Does that include under 18s, because people I invited before weren't allowed in because of their age :(


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## Butterfree (Sep 21, 2011)

All I really know about it is that bizarre real names policy that forbids people from having names that don't look sufficiently like normal WASP birth names. Is that still in effect?


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## Michi (Sep 21, 2011)

Rasrap Smurf said:


> They opened up to everyone yesterday didn't they? Does that include under 18s, because people I invited before weren't allowed in because of their age :(


People under 18 are still not allowed to join.

Which is really terrible; Facebook keeps updating things and is getting worse by the day, while Myspace was abandoned by me age group long ago and the rest of the social networking sites are either really lame or not as useful.

Which means that everyone is stuck without a decent social networking service for a while yet.


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## Lady Grimdour (Sep 21, 2011)

Well they allowed mine, so it should be fine. The under 18 policy I think still stands.


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## Worst Username Ever (Sep 21, 2011)

When I saw it, I was going to join...
and then "lol you must be 18 or older"

annoying.


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## Lady Grimdour (Sep 21, 2011)

While I don't condone it (obligatory), some, if not most people just lie about their age.


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## nastypass (Sep 21, 2011)

I'm in and I don't think I lied about my age.  ?_?

I could just be misremembering, though.


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## Murkrow (Sep 21, 2011)

The only thing is about that, I don't think you're able to change your age back at all so once you're 18 you're going to have to carry on saying you're that much older.


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## PurifyingPyre (Sep 21, 2011)

I joined it just to see what kind of games they have and now I'm hooked on Collapse Blast xD


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## Elliekat (Sep 21, 2011)

I was all excited that it opened and then it wouldn't let me in because I'm only 16. WHY, GOOGLE?!


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## Zero Moment (Sep 22, 2011)

Mockingjay said:


> Which means that everyone is stuck without a decent social networking service for a while yet.


People don't really need social networking :E


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## Chief Zackrai (Sep 22, 2011)

Mockingjay said:


> Which means that everyone is stuck without a decent social networking service for a while yet.





Legendaryseeker99 said:


> People don't really need social networking :E


Aren't forums social networking ?_?


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## Light (Sep 22, 2011)

Mockingjay said:


> People under 18 are still not allowed to join.


?
I was allowed to join. Maybe if you're under 18 you have to have a GMail account?



Chief Zackrai said:


> Aren't forums social networking ?_?


> >
..u


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## ultraviolet (Sep 22, 2011)

haha oh yeah I forgot that it wasn't open to everyone just yet

I've had it for months. :P it's okay I guess. the circles feature is nice, but facebook seems to be trying to copy that with 'lists'.



			
				Mockingjay said:
			
		

> Which means that everyone is stuck without a decent social networking service for a while yet.


oh _no._ really though, it's not as if social networking is a necessity, now is it?


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## spaekle (Sep 22, 2011)

Grimdour said:


> Mostly because you can split your friends into work friends, internet friends, your boss, your parents so if you don't want one group to read your status, there.


I automatically decided Google+ is the superior social networking service as soon as I discovered this. 

It looks pretty awesome all around so far, haven't played around with it too much yet.


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## I liek Squirtles (Sep 22, 2011)

*ahemcoughahem* First of all, lots of forumgoers barely reach that age (examples Mewtini, DarkAura, me, etc).THE NEW GENERATION IS TAKING OVER So we cannot access Google+.


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## Light (Sep 22, 2011)

I liek Squirtles said:


> *ahemcoughahem* First of all, lots of *Pokemon* forumgoers barely reach that age (examples Mewtini, DarkAura, me, etc).THE NEW GENERATION IS TAKING OVER So we cannot access Google+.


Fixed. Try getting a gmail account and joining. I'm only 17 and it worked just fine.


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## Cerberus87 (Sep 22, 2011)

Facebook sucks, so if this gets big, I'll give it a try.

Lucky me if I do, I really am 24.


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## Tailsy (Sep 22, 2011)

Butterfree said:


> All I really know about it is that bizarre real names policy that forbids people from having names that don't look sufficiently like normal WASP birth names. Is that still in effect?


I doubt that statement very much, since Jordan has an account and I am pretty sure 'O'Hare' is not a ASP birth name at all. P: (I don't know if the name rules are still in effect, I'm just a pedant.)


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## Superbird (Sep 22, 2011)

I love how when I registered and put 4 people into circles it suddenly said "You must be lonely..." or something.

I dunno, seems useless if only because no one actually uses it yet. None of my friends, anyway.


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## Lady Grimdour (Sep 22, 2011)

Superbird said:


> I love how when I registered and put 4 people into circles it suddenly said "You must be lonely..." or something.
> 
> I dunno, seems useless if only because no one actually uses it yet. None of my friends, anyway.


That's why you invite people; you have 150 invites plus just tell your friends. I'm still on a recruitment drive.


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## Murkrow (Sep 22, 2011)

Okay, this is kinda creepy. I checked out its suggestions for people to add to my circles, and it suggested people from a forum I haven't visited for a year. People who I never even talked to, and as far as I can tell they're not in the circles of any people I'm currently following, or following any of the same people I am. (I mean, they might be following Notch, but I find it highly unlikely that it'd chose them from the 100000 people following him and bunch them together in my suggestions)

How does Google know this stuff D:


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## Aisling (Sep 22, 2011)

ultraviolet said:


> haha oh yeah I forgot that it wasn't open to everyone just yet
> 
> I've had it for months. :P it's okay I guess. the circles feature is nice, but facebook seems to be trying to copy that with 'lists'.


Same here but I only had a couple of other people in my circles or whatever until now so I barely used it

I was wondering what the sudden fascination with it was when basically every good acquaintance of mine from high school had added me on it a couple days ago.

I really hope this gets big, because I really don't like facebook to begin with and I doubly resent it because my parents forced me to get one so I could be their fucking farmville neighbor or some shit. Ever since then, every somewhat-civil conversation with my father has been:
"HEY MEGAN you need to check your facebook so you can give me a pair of overalls"
"Fuck no"
"WHY DO YOU HAVE ONE IF YOU NEVER USE IT?"


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## Light (Sep 22, 2011)

Rasrap Smurf said:


> Okay, this is kinda creepy. I checked out its suggestions for people to add to my circles, and it suggested people from a forum I haven't visited for a year. People who I never even talked to, and as far as I can tell they're not in the circles of any people I'm currently following, or following any of the same people I am. (I mean, they might be following Notch, but I find it highly unlikely that it'd chose them from the 100000 people following him and bunch them together in my suggestions)
> 
> How does Google know this stuff D:


O_O
1) Do you have a gmail, 2) did you use your gmail to register at that forum (or if you didn't did you register with Google+ the same email you registered at that forum) and 3) did you ever have emails from that forum sent to you?

I can tell that Google keeps track of the searches associated with your IP address and modifies its search suggestions based on what you have searched in the past. So it's even possible that if you have googled "xxx forums" a certain number of times google will pick up on that and give you friend suggestions from over there. But I would think this isn't the case, since you recognized the people google suggested from the other forum, so presumably they weren't just random members.


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## Michi (Sep 22, 2011)

Because I totally said social networking was a necessity... ya no :/ I was stating that the lack of a decent social networking service accessible by my age group was an inconvenience to those who have an interest in social networking. This just happens to be nearly _everyone_ in the town I live in. Everyone has a Facebook account and while it's okay, I've seen about 50-100 anti-Facebook statements in the last day because of the recent changes along with statements about other social networking services. I never said anyone needed social networking, or even the Internet for that matter.

Anyway, I do in fact have a gmail account as well as a Google account (I think they go together or something), and I was still not allowed to join. It still gives me the age restriction message. Maybe it just doesn't like me very much :o
EDIT: I tried to make another Gmail account to see if it would let me get in that way, but now it's giving me an age restriction message even for that! What the heck is going on? Grrr technology.


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## Murkrow (Sep 22, 2011)

Light Yagami said:


> O_O
> 1) Do you have a gmail, 2) did you use your gmail to register at that forum (or if you didn't did you register with Google+ the same email you registered at that forum) and 3) did you ever have emails from that forum sent to you?
> 
> I can tell that Google keeps track of the searches associated with your IP address and modifies its search suggestions based on what you have searched in the past. So it's even possible that if you have googled "xxx forums" a certain number of times google will pick up on that and give you friend suggestions from over there. But I would think this isn't the case, since you recognized the people google suggested from the other forum, so presumably they weren't just random members.


I did use my gmail address to register, though surely the forum would know that, not google?
And I recognised a few suggestions as mods, admins and one avatar that seems pretty typical of the forums. So I dunno.

For all I know some of these suggestions are tcod members and I don't know it yet!

/me tinfoil hat


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## Light (Sep 22, 2011)

Rasrap Smurf said:


> I did use my gmail address to register, though surely the forum would know that, not google?


But did you have email notifications sent to you, such as when you got a PM, VM, or reply in a thread?



> And I recognised a few suggestions as mods, admins and one avatar that seems pretty typical of the forums. So I dunno.


Sounds like google might be stalking your interests with your searches. *slight shudder*


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## Arylett Charnoa (Sep 22, 2011)

I just got one now to see what it's all about and... I don't understand how to use it. Uh. I'll figure it out. Although I probably won't use the circles feature because I'm the type who posts everything to everyone and don't really care who sees.



Butterfree said:


> All I really know about it is that bizarre real names policy that forbids people from having names that don't look sufficiently like normal WASP birth names. Is that still in effect?


If surskitty/Tailsy's post doesn't reassure you; I signed up as Arylett Dawnsborough. All good.


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## ultraviolet (Sep 23, 2011)

Rasrap Smurf said:


> I did use my gmail address to register, though surely the forum would know that, not google?
> And I recognised a few suggestions as mods, admins and one avatar that seems pretty typical of the forums. So I dunno.
> 
> For all I know some of these suggestions are tcod members and I don't know it yet!
> ...


you would have at least gotten a confirmation email. google+ also goes through your email or phone contacts if they're connected to your google account, or if you're friends with someone from that forum.

gmail suggests university lecturers to me, for example, who don't actually have google+, but they're in my email contacts.


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## Worst Username Ever (Sep 23, 2011)

sooo, guess I should get a gmail and try again.

Think the gmail account has to be 18+?


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## opaltiger (Sep 23, 2011)

Chief Zackrai said:


> Aren't forums social networking ?_?


No. Forums are for discussion, social networking is exclusively for keeping track of people.


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## Negrek (Sep 24, 2011)

Rasrap Smurf said:


> I did use my gmail address to register, though surely the forum would know that, not google?
> And I recognised a few suggestions as mods, admins and one avatar that seems pretty typical of the forums. So I dunno.
> 
> For all I know some of these suggestions are tcod members and I don't know it yet!
> ...


Google has records of all the e-mails you have ever sent or received through GMail, as well as their contents (at least the received ones). It does its best to track your searches even if you aren't logged into your Google account, and any Google service that you use is going to track your activity. Chrome sends Google information on your browsing habits; so does Google Toolbar and some of their other services. Meanwhile, any web page that uses Google Analytics will record when you show up there and send the data to Google even if you don't have a Google account or use any of its other services. Probably it doesn't look into your browsing history the way Amazon does to recommend products, but it could.

It also knows that information on _the people with whom you have interacted_, so even if you aren't revealing your browsing history to Google, it can work off your contacts (assuming they have not been so stringent in their browsing habits as you) list to determine interests/sites of overlap and recommend contacts-of-contacts that you likely know, if only because they interact with some other set of people you know.



opaltiger said:


> No. Forums are for discussion, social networking is exclusively for keeping track of people.


Yeah, nobody has ever had a conversation over Facebook, used it to play games, or even get deals on stuff. :P

And forum software has been doing everything it can to add "social networking" features; cf user groups, visitor messages.


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